Feelings & Premonitions
by WingedArcher1
Summary: Sophia has been having visions lately, most of them centering around a certain gruff, green haired shaman with a continuous smirk on his face. But every time she tries to talk to him about it, he seems to become flustered and leaves leaves. So she decides to ask the one person that knows him the best what's wrong, his brother. What she learns will change their relationship forever.
**A/n- Add this to the pile of one-shots that almost no one will read. But seriously, this basically just came to me because of a line I thought was cool and this story happened. Oh, and I use 'Ray' because it's easier for me to spell consistently.**

Feelings & Premonitions

"Master Roy?" Sophia spoke up to the army's leader who was standing in the middle of the camp. She was looking for someone, but couldn't for the life of her find him. She knew Roy was perceptive, maybe he knew.

"Oh, hello Sophia." Roy said with a smile as he turned around. "Here to tell me about another vision you had?"

"No...I was wondering if you had seen someone." She answered slowly. She was still feeling slightly down for worrying Roy, she considered him a friend and wanted him to be happy.

"Well, I do need to keep at least minor tabs on everyone in the army, who are you looking for?  
Roy asked continuing to smile.

"Would you happen to know where Ray is? I keep wanting to talk to him, but every time it seems like he's busy with something." Sophia asked. She had been having visions about him, not anything bad, just strange. She would catch glimpses of his tuffs of green hair, his eyes closed for some reason, as if in expectation of something. It intrigued her as much as he did and she hoped it would spark his curiosity as well.

"Hm, the last time I saw Ray he was with Lugh. He seemed agitated, I mean more than usual, so you might want to be, careful." Roy cautioned.

"Why don't you just tell her?" Lugh asked with a smug grin. It wasn't often he had the upper hand in a conversation with his brother, so he was enjoying it just a bit.

"Tell her what? I don't have anything to tell. How many times do I have to say that?!" Ray snapped back. He was losing his cool very quickly, mostly because Lugh was all kinds of right. He was having feelings about a girl, but he wanted to also keep his reputation in tact.

"Whatever lets you sleep at night." Lugh told him. "But this war is almost over, we're heading straight into Bern in less than a week, if you don't tell her soon you aren't going to get the chance."

"Since when have you become so smug?" Ray asked trying to change the subject, but then he thought better of it and started to walk out of the tent they were in. "I'm going to go meditate or something, don't follow me." He only took a few steps out of the tent before he ran into someone and tripped over onto them because he was distracted. "Hey! Watch where you're going, you blind or something?!" He yelled not knowing who it was.

"I...uh...um...sorry?" It was Sophia heading to the twins tent on Roy suggestion she hadn't braced herself so she fell over along with Ray. His eyes shot wide for a half a second realizing who it was, but soon he was back to normal.

"What are you doing around here, you aren't stalking me are you?" He asked her, even if he actually would like it if she did slightly. If he would have thought about it, he would realize what position they were in and get off of her.

"No. Could you please get off of me?" That's when he realized it and got up. He even instinctively held his hand out to help her up, something he almost never did. "Thank you. I really am sorry, I was thinking about what I was going to say and was distracted."

"Well you're lucky it was just me you ran into, you should be more careful next time." Ray told her, it was his way of showing he cared.

"I'll keep that in mind." Sophia said before taking a deep breath and asking her question. "Do you mind if I ask a favor of you?" Ray looked at her face and he could tell that she was serious about something. And that's all it really took for his heart to start melting a bit. She was just so innocent, he wanted to shelter her, protect her, make her feel happy. But as soon as those thoughts came up his natural reaction was to push them back and run away.

"Can it wait, I'm busy with something at the moment?" He said backing away without giving her time to answer.

"Wait!" Sophia said reaching her hand out, but it was no use, Ray once again had eluded her grasp. It made her feel useless and unwanted, it made her want to disappear. She could sense his discomfort and wondered if it was her fault. Deep down she knew Ray could be a caring person, he had just shown it, but maybe he didn't like her as much as she thought he did. There was one way to find out though, so she walked over to the tent Ray came out of and called out.

"Lugh, are you in here?"

"Yes, please come in." Lugh said inviting her in. "Oh, Sophia, Ray and I were just talking about you." This surprised the young shaman very much.

"You were?" She asked slowly. "Why would you be talking about me?"

"I don't know if I should tell you, it's kind of personal." Lugh admitted. "He might actually get upset at me if I did. So what brings you here?"

"Well...Ray." Sophia said taking a bit to think of what to say. "He's been acting very strange around me lately. It's like he's trying to avoid me. I'd hat to think I did something to make him hate me." Lugh was really holding back a hearty laugh because he knew that it would be rude, but he was beginning to grin again. "What is so amusing about my situation?" Sophia asked a bit indignantly.

"He's in love with you!" He said barely holding it in. He knew he just told her he shouldn't tell her, but he felt like he had to now. "He's just trying to keep his 'reputation' as a jerk up for no good reason."

"Wait...what?" Sophia asked confused still. "How would you know such a thing is true?"

"I'm his twin brother, I know these sort of things. Plus he's like the only person in the army other than Chad he actually compliments when we talk about other people."

"You talk about me? I hardly think I'm that interesting." Sophia mentioned.

"You wouldn't think so with how much he comments about you. 'Look how she casts that spell, almost as good as I do.' and things like that. Believe me, he's falling hard. He just can't chill out and tell you."

"I-I don't know what to say to that." Sophia admitted.

"Well, how do you feel about him?" Lugh asked. "Do feel something between the two of you?"

"I'm not quite sure. I mean I have been having visions about him. Just of his face and him actually smiling. Do you think that means anything?" She told him.

"I think it might be your mind telling you something, yes." Lugh answered. "Do you feel different around him?"

"I feel safe, and that's a feeling I usually only get in Arcadia. I feel like he cares about my well-being, and I guess we both know only a few people get that from him. I feel like he wouldn't do anything to hurt me and that he's a good person. What do you think I should do?"

"Well, if he's not going to make the first move, then you have to." Lugh told her. "I can tell you where he went if you want me to."

"I-I don't know, what if we're wrong and he doesn't feel that way?" Sophia asked nervously. "I don't know if I can take that." Lugh knew just what to say though.

"Go out by the water source near here and find a place to watch him, you won't be sorry." He had caught Ray doing what he was most likely doing now, and if Sophia saw that then she would be confident that he was right.

"I guess I have no choice if I want to make everything make sense again. Thank you Lugh, you've been a big help." Sophia told him.

"Hey, anything to make my friends and family happy." And with that Sophia left to go find Ray. She walked cautiously towards where the small stream near the camp was, there were a few trees on the way, and when she heard Ray speaking she hid behind one to watch him. What she saw was very strange to say the least.

"You aren't being very helpful you know?" Ray said to someone who looked just like Sophia, but on closer inspection it was an apparition coming out from a magic tome.

"You know very well that I've told you everything you need to know, you just don't want to listen." The apparition scolded him. "Her hair gives this tome, and in turn myself, all of her memories and feelings, and I've told you that if you tell her how you feel that she will accept your feelings about her. You just can't handle looking soft in front of your peers." It was more forceful than she ever would be, but it did give her some insight. And it told her why he wanted a strand of her hair the other day.

"If I look soft then no one will respect me." Ray countered. "And if they don't respect me they won't put their trust in me, and if they don't trust me someone will end up getting killed and it's going to be my fault. I already lost my parents and Father Lucius, I'm not going to lose anyone else." He thought he was all alone, so he was more open about how he really felt about the world.

"Calm down." The apparition told him. "How do you know that 'looking soft' won't make people respect you more? If you can show that you have more emotions than being a jerk, people would be more willing to open up to you? I mean think about Sophia, she's innocent and quiet most of the time, but people respect her and her power."

"You know, for a book, you can be pretty smart sometimes." Ray admitted.

"It's not of my own will, you're the one who put her hair in my pages. I just say what she would say to you if she had the courage." The apparition told him. During this whole exchange Sophia was inching closer to the two of them and eventually the tome could feel her power even if she wasn't in sight.

"Would she think this is creepy, me doing this out here?" Ray asked.

"Creepy, no. Maybe a bit strange, but if she saw you doing it I'm sure she would be touched." It answered. And it was true, Sophia's feelings were bubbling up watching Ray converse with the Sophia he had created. "I have an idea that may help you out. Close your eyes."

"Close my eyes? Fine, if you think it will help." Ray said a bit confused. When he did the apparition looked silently at the real Sophia and motioned her to come over and stand right in front of Ray. "Okay, now what?"

"I want you to tell me what you like about Sophia, it'll help sort out your thoughts a bit." The apparition said. The real Sophia looked at it with wide eyes, but it just winked back at her.

"Well, okay. First off, she is very intelligent, no doubt because of her age and study material in Arcadia. I hate to admit it, but she's probably much smarter than I am. But she doesn't show off with it, she uses her power to help people, like I try to most of the time. It's rare to see Elder magic users like that, so it attracts me to her. She's also very peaceful and innocent, she always seems to stay calm and that's a good quality to have in times like this. And, well, she is quite cute if I'm being honest, but I will rip you page from page if you tell anyone I said that." Ray said, and since Sophia was right there she could see and feel that he was being completely honest, he was even smiling like in her visions of him she was having. "She reminds me that the world isn't as bad as I make it out to be, and I want to protect that because she deserves to be happy. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"It's everything and more." The real Sophia said before wrapping her arms around the boy in a hug. The apparition had disappeared long before Ray had finished his speech since it knew the outcome of the exchange was going to be. Though of course Ray was very surprised as his eyes shot wide and his arms instinctively wrapped themselves around Sophia's light frame.

"How long were you listening to that?!" He asked in his shocked voice, still not quite registering that he was being hugged and blushing as red as Roy's hair.

"I heard the whole thing, even before when you were speaking to the apparition." Sophia said with a smile, she was very comfortable in his embrace and didn't want this moment to end anytime soon.

"I, uh, well, drat." Was all Ray could think to say to her response. There was no use in hiding the truth if she had heard all that. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I just have a lot of mixed up feelings inside me, and I'm only 13 so that doesn't help."

"I'm just glad that I found out why you were acting so weird, I was worried about you." Sophia admitted. There was a silence after that, but then Ray asked a question that he needed answered badly.

"So, um, how do you feel about me? I mean it's okay if you don't share my feelings, but I figured since I spilled my guts it would be only fair if you did as well." He asked getting some of his snark back. Sophia just giggled slightly before letting him go so she could speak freely.

"Well, your tome was correct, I do share the same feelings you do. You are very interesting to me Ray, you put on such a hard exterior, yet in times like this I can see the real you, the one who cares about everyone, about me. While I think that everyone else should see this side of you, I guess it does make me feel special that you show it to me. I have a great deal of respect for you, personality and power wise. You do your best to help everyone while taking so much onto yourself, you make me feel safe, like you won't let anything hurt me when you're around. And like I told your brother, the only other place I feel like that is home in Arcadia. I enjoy being around you very much Ray, and it warms my heart that you feel the same." Ray couldn't help but turn his smirk into a full smile at hearing those words come out of Sophia's mouth. It made him so happy that he just had to hug her again.

"I won't let anything happen to you, ever. I promise you that." He whispered into her ear as he hugged her.

"I trust you, more than I trust anyone else." Sophia responded before pulling her head back to look him in the eyes. "I think this might be the part where you kiss me."

"Okay." Ray said softly as he moved his lips closer to hers and slowly connected them. It was soft and tender, the way it should be, and it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ray was indeed a softie. It just took a rare magic tome and a half-dragon girl shaman to make him show it.

 **A/n- And for your random sad thought for the day, even if Ray gets a longer life from being good at dark magic like Niime did, Sophia is still going to outlive him most likely. You're welcome. :P**


End file.
